Another day of diving, we again had two dives in the morning both with several exercises regarding safety that we had to repeat. I spent the afternoon on the beach with Mya, another Swed who started her diving course today, she is a good laugh and later the group of us got pizza for dinner. Before going to bed I did a little more studying. Not the most exciting of days.
One thing to mention is that diving really takes it out of you, for the last few days I've been so exhausted after the dives.
My first experience diving… was amazing. Actually I have done it once before in France where I went under a frozen lake but this time I didn’t have a rope tied to me and obviously the water was much warmer.
We had to get up in the early hours of the morning (Tim, Marianne and myself) to meet with our instructor and watch the second (corny and boring as hell) video before we set off into the open water to practice a bunch of things like what to do when you loose the regulator from your mouth, how to get neutral buoyancy, some simple diving sign language and how to clear your mask from water whilst under.
It didn’t take us long to figure these things out and soon after we were swimming out into the current beside a reef where we saw a bunch of aquatic life. It really was incredible and we were under for a good amount of time.
Lunch was included where we ate on the mainland and helped some fishermen pull in over 300 fish in a net on the beach and apparently it was the largest catch in a long time – very impressive to watch, even better to help out like I did.
The second dive for the day was a fun dive and we swam about another reef seeing stingrays and more aquatic life.
I have another 2 days of this then a test before I get my open water license, tomorrow should be another great day.
In the evening after having a nap I headed into Santa Marta to get some money out and get some food from the market for a bit of a cook up in the evening. I wanted to make some sort of curry but I couldn’t find the ingredients so I went with a simple chicken roast… I wasn’t happy with it because the chicken was tough, frozen and old. I promised The singaporeans and the skandys id cook a nice meal but it really wasn’t great… shame really because I was trying to impress linda… ill cook up something a bit nicer next time.
The group of us went out to La Playa Grande today, only walking distance from town – it wasn’t the nicest beach and like most touristy beaches it had its annoyances with those damn hippies trying to sell their homemade jewelry and crap to all the tourists. At 5 we had organized the scuba dive shop to watch the introductory film to scuba diving – a very boring video where I almost fell asleep but the fun starts tomorrow.
After a quick nap we went to Casa de Filipe – another hostel where a lot of people ive met in Columbia were staying. There was a 4 star Michelin chef working there and the fillet mignon that I ordered was delicious.
Because the dive course starts early tomorrow we headed home at a reasonable hour.
All together I spent 3 nights in this hostel and this morning I was the first that I was up in time for the free breakfast. I packed my things, tupperwared my leftovers, met with the others and set off at 11 to catch the 5 hour journey to Taganga. I was sitting next to an older American girl for the journey named Gil and it was good banter where we just took the piss out of one another.
Arriving in Taganga all of the popular hostels were booked up so we found another that was cheap and had a very homely feel, ran by a very cool woman who catered to all our needs.
Taganga is one of the cheapest places in the world to get your open water license (scuba diving) so we made inquires about it and grabbed a seafood dinner down at the beach.
The Scandinavian girls and myself headed out to the club later where I bumped into the big group of Irish, Aussies, Brits and Scots I had met previously along with Natalie and Jessica.
It was a fun night out where I finally made it out to the dance floor but this is because I was drunk – the only time you will see me dancing unless of course its heavy metal music and even then even me would say its not even dancing.
I was very stale towards Natalie today, I know it’s a bit immature but I honestly thought something between us was there… Anyways I chilled on the beach eating food all day and got the return boat to Cartagena with the Americans, Sophie and Arezoo, we checked back into the hostel and I cooked up dinner again for a bunch of us.
Being a Friday a lot of people from the hostel wanted to go out in town, I didn’t much feel like it as I always enjoy chilling in the hostel. Its not often but I met two Singaporeans travelling together (Tim and Serene), its funny that one didn’t say more than one sentence before I could guess that singlish accent. These two were awesome and travelling with two also just as cool and very pretty Scandinavians (Marianne and Linda), they were headed in the same direction as me tomorrow so I managed to get myself invited to tag along with them to Taganga.
Not much to mention today, just chilled on the beach and only left the beach to go snorkelling with the Americans. The reef was just alright with not much to mention other than some cuttlefish that changed colour and squirted ink when frightening them. I also ran into Natalie and Jessica again and I wasn’t hesitant to tell Natalie I was well into her – thinking I could maybe get involved later in the evening – I was confident about the situation and after a few drinks later in the evening but she ran off with a Swedish guy – after all my ground work! God Damn it!
I didn't get much sleep last night due to drinking quite a lot but also because i organized to go to la playa blanca at 10 with Sophie and Arezoo. It was quite an expensive journey to the island beach but also quite worth it. Obviously the beach here or anywhere else for that matter doesn't remotely compare to the beautiful islands of San Blas but still the beach here was nice and relaxed. I caught up on the much needed sleep I missed out on during the evening and with the girls got some fried and very tasty fish of the days catch.
Later in the evening We met with some Americans we met in the previous hostel in Cartagena and spent the evening chatting with a bottle of rum. (Molly, Doyle and Rachel)
